The big inheritance question

I was reading a USA Today article this morning about whether or not you should leave your children an inheritance. As many of you have probably heard by now, Warren Buffet, who I always initially think of as Jimmy Buffet, pledged over $30 billion dollars to the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation and pledged very little (something like a billion dollars) comparably, to his own foundation run by one of his children.

As usual, people are focusing on the wrong issue. The issue should not be, “Should I leave my children any money?” But rather the issue should be, “Are my children responsible enough to leave a lot of money to?” It’s an issue of character and not money. If you have a spoiled child that never seems to make a healthy decision, then I’d recommend that you don’t leave him any money.

On the other hand, if you have a child who is loving, responsible, and giving; then I would leave him a lot of money. The reason - because he has already proven himself to be responsible, loving, and giving. So what do you think that child would do with the money? He would be loving, giving, and responsible! Why wouldn’t you want to give a child like that a lot of money?

So while you’re raising your children, don’t focus on the question of, “Should I give him a lot of money?” But rather focus on raising the kind of child who could handle the responsibility of a lot of money. Seems pretty straight forward to me. Of course, this raises the question of how you raise a child responsible enough to handle a lot of money. Which I hate to do this, but I must, get the greatest parenting book on this subject called “Parenting with Love and Logic” which happens to be available in our online store at www.thesmalleystore.com.

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